Country Manager Insights with Seiji Yasubuchi, AXA Chairman and former leader at Visa, GE Capital, etc.

​This Delphi event is part of our mission to pool country manager insights among our members. Our events are CXO-focussed, based on the Chatham House Rule. Our events are small in number, and go deep into the topic. All attendees will have the chance to ask questions and share their own experiences.

​Brief Description The role of country manager at the Japan subsidiary of a global firm is so fascinating because it's right at the centre of powerful countervailing forces. Rarely is it the case that these forces prop each other up, like they do in a triangle, with the lines exerting a calm pressure on each other to keep the structure stable. On the contrary, at a gaishikei they tend to have a centrifugal effect!

​Local staff may find it harder to understand the demands of a faraway HQ. A foreign expat country manager knows how to handle HQ but may be ignorant or even contemptuous of Japanese business practices. A local Japanese country manager knows the market in Japan, but lacks the connections at regional and HQ levels to enforce what he knows to be winning strategies.

​Thus, while the profiles of country managers are varied, none of them can be optimum in every single aspect. HQ must consider trade-offs.

​One possible solution is to employ a cosmopolitan, fluent English-speaking Japanese leader who attended Harvard Business School and learned his craft at one of the great corporate "trainers", namely GE under its famous CEO Jack Welch - just like Seiji, in fact! Actually, this type of profile in Japan has become surprisingly rarer in the last 20 years, as Japan has retreated into itself.

​At this event, we will learn from arguable the "ideal" country manager profile about how he solved (or indeed, occasionally failed to solve!) the pressing challenges of a leader in Japan: the low-growth environment; the role of powerful state regulators; the difficulty in hiring staff with global skills; the rightfully demanding nature of Japanese customers; and reconciling Japan with HQ without getting crushed in the middle.

​Type of Audience Any country manager looking for insights from an expert in the role will find our frank, off-the-record and in-depth format of great value to benchmark his/her own efforts. This is a C-suite event, with a bias towards country managers.